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Repeated page refresh on adsense pages

is there a penalty

         

rfung

5:07 pm on Jun 3, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Say, I'm developing a page, and I have to constantly refresh it as I make changes. Adsense IS on the page and this is on the live server already. Will this trigger any flags on G? Their TOS say we can't do this, so how would they really detect such behavior as illegal or not?(of course at this point it's all speculation..)

On the same topic, has anyone even been booted out because of illegal manual refreshes?

In general,I tend to think that the TOS reflects a less than perfect reality of what exactly they can track, given the multitude of all possible scenarios that are perfectly legit but could be construed as being illegal.

jaxomlotus

6:25 pm on Jun 3, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Considering that noone pays for a refresh, i don't really see an ethical problem. I think Google is more concerned with people doing this to disguise their CTR as lower than it really is when doing something to boost their clickthroughs. You might trigger a red flag, but they'll investigate and see nothing wrong. I guess just ask yourself if you want to risk them finding something wrong when they investigate :)

JollyK

6:48 pm on Jun 3, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I just use SSI or PHP to make it not show adsense if the request is coming from my IP. Instead, it shows an image that looks like Adsense (so I can get a feel for how the overall page will look) but doesn't link anywhere. Is this possible for you, or is it possible to develop on an alternate page where you use an image instead of the actual Adsense code?

HughMungus

8:46 pm on Jun 3, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I was wondering today if it affects my CTR since if the clicks are static and the pageviews go up because I'm working on the site, my CTR goes down...

rfung

9:09 am on Jun 6, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



hughmongus:

that would be the reason why Google says it violates TOS. SOmeone could theoretically click their own ads, and then generate a few hits to the page in order to lower the CTR to where it looks normal.

annej

12:32 pm on Jun 6, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Google says it violates TOS

Could you give me the URL for the TOS and tell me what part says this. I don't seem to be able to find these things.

I often refresh pages when I'm working on my site. I guess I'll have to be careful to get everything right while working offline and then upload.

ronin

12:50 pm on Jun 6, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



I often refresh pages when I'm working on my site.

So do I.

I guess I'll have to be careful to get everything right while working offline and then upload.

Oh, honestly. You think AdSense is going to start banning webmasters for legitimate development activity? Come on. Even if they did (which I dismiss) they would still be in the wrong to do so. Do you think it's reasonable to make refreshing pages while updating a punishable offence?

There's a little too much paranoia in these threads sometimes...

rfung

12:51 pm on Jun 6, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



[google.com...]

and i quote:
"8. How do you prevent click and page impression spam?
Any method used to artificially and/or fraudulently generate clicks or page impressions is strictly prohibited. Google monitors clicks on Google ads to prevent abuse of the Google AdSense program. Google's proprietary technology analyzes clicks to determine whether they fit a pattern of fraudulent use intended to artificially drive up an advertiser's clicks or a publisher's earnings. Clicks deemed by us to be click spam should not be included in your earnings.
"

It's interesting to note their wording on the last paragraph: "should not be included" is such a wishy washy non commital way of saying it 'will not'. I guess it 'shouldn't' but if they include it it's okay too.

annej

1:40 pm on Jun 6, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



There's a little too much paranoia in these threads sometimes...

I agree and it's obviously getting to me. I usually scoff at the paranoia around here but lately there have been so many people dropped from AdSense with no explaination.

I don't have a good alternative to AdSense as no one else can touch the level of good targeting that I get on website my topics with AdSense.

europeforvisitors

2:03 pm on Jun 6, 2004 (gmt 0)



Any method used to artificially and/or fraudulently generate clicks or page impressions is strictly prohibited.

Well, that's your answer. There's nothing "artificial or fraudulent" about viewing your pages while designing or editing them.

FWIW, I've never seen a post on this board from anyone who was bounced from the AdSense program for "invalid impressions."

CalArch90

2:09 pm on Jun 6, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I refresh my pages all the time when I'm updating content and have never had any problems.

If you are concerned about it, you can always remove the code momentarily while you update and refresh your pages, and then reinsert it again after you are finished updating.

rfung

5:46 pm on Jun 6, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



europeforvisitors:

just to clarify, I think the issue is how would Google know the difference between someone willingfully clicking refresh on their browser a few dozen times in order to hide and decrease a high CTR, or someone simply working on their website. There's absolutely no difference as far as the 'motions' of it.

I haven't heard of anyone coming here and posting about being kicked out of the program AND suggesting that the reason they got booted was because of impression spam, but when G give you the boot, who ever really knows what or for what it happened anyway?

Sometimes I wonder how effective G's algos are and how much they are capable to do what their TOS makes us believe they can do...

europeforvisitors

6:20 pm on Jun 6, 2004 (gmt 0)



just to clarify, I think the issue is how would Google know the difference between someone willingfully clicking refresh on their browser a few dozen times in order to hide and decrease a high CTR, or someone simply working on their website.

If a site has so little traffic that a few dozen extra impressions would have a significant effect on its clickthrough rate, it may have a problem--especially if it's attracting high-bid clicks that are more likely to invite abuse. But I doubt if this is a concern for most publishers.

jomaxx

11:22 pm on Jun 6, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Trust me, there is no way Google have so much time on their hands that they would investigate this. They don't want people to use automated tools or META tag page refresh to pump up the number of impressions, but the situation you described is completely commonplace.

ChrisKud5

4:23 am on Jun 9, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



"Well, that's your answer. There's nothing "artificial or fraudulent" about viewing your pages while designing or editing them. "

Are you able to distinguish between page impressions from someone building a site or people generating impressions to lower CTR to keep all flags lowered?

Who needs computers when we have you.!?

A threshold has to exist as to a "red flag" and a "green flag" in terms of CTR rate. If 12 impressions or 1 impression is going to lower the number below a threshold, than that would be significant wouldnt it?

europeforvisitors

5:42 am on Jun 9, 2004 (gmt 0)



Are you able to distinguish between page impressions from someone building a site or people generating impressions to lower CTR to keep all flags lowered?

No, but Google probably can (if it wants to), by looking for artificial patterns.

IMHO, it's highly unlikely that the number of internal pages viewed during content development will ever be great enough to trigger an alarm at Google.